UAL To Launch Corporate Portal Based On Orbitz

United Airlines next month plans to launch a new corporate portal on its Web site based on Orbitz technology. Designed for small and midmarket accounts, the portal will include exclusive discounts for all domestic and most international United fares, shopping and booking capabilities for all other airlines normally listed through Orbitz, hotel and car rental reservations, and travel management reporting tools. It won't include booking fees for any United reservation.

Dubbed UnitedGoBusiness, the portal "represents a very explicit step in executing our comprehensive distribution strategy," according to Scott Brandt, United managing director of worldwide sales strategy. "We have observed our competitors launch corporate portals and everybody agrees that they have not gotten that much traction in the marketplace. It is a big opportunity in terms of marketshare upside and revenue upside for an airline to get it right."

United's target users fall into the "basic self-reliance segment." Brandt described those accounts generally as being smaller than those currently on the airline's corporate client roster, including many now considering an online booking solution rather than a strong relationship with a traditional travel management company. Brandt also noted certain eligibility requirements, which are likely to include revenue minimums, but did not discount possible participation by larger companies. "We are seeing quite a few large corporations assessing if they want to move to Orbitz for Business," he said.

Discounts off published fares are standardized for all accounts and range up to 4 percent, according to an initial version of the UnitedGoBusiness Web site. Discounts offered by United's Star Alliance partners also are possible.

United said it differentiated its portal from the competition by including cross-shopping functionality across all carriers normally included in the Orbitz channel. "We are not so naïve to believe that the United global network always will meet the needs of a UnitedGoBusiness account," Brandt said. However, since United bookings offer incremental discounts and do not incur a booking fee—whereas other airline bookings through the portal would include a standard Orbitz fee—United's content is positioned with an advantage over competitors.

Interestingly, United was the largest domestic carrier to list inventory from other suppliers during the formative years of direct booking via airline Web sites in the mid-1990s, before eventually reversing that policy.

Meanwhile, Orbitz technology also will allow United to enable hotel and car reservations through its portal. Other elements include an all-hours customer service center, bonus frequent flyer mileage and various travel management tools to help business travel managers set policy guidelines, store traveler profiles and track travel program data.

"If United wants to be aggressive enough, it would compel some companies to move in that direction, but it probably would mostly be unmanaged accounts," said Mark Walton, principal of travel management consulting firm Consulting Strategies.

Brandt said United chose Orbitz, which now is owned by Cendant Travel Distribution Services, last year after an extensive request-for-proposals process that included traditional global distribution systems and other online travel agencies.

"We negotiated the economics so that the portal will be our lowest-cost B2B channel by a long shot, with per-transaction costs on par with united.com," he explained.

Without providing specifics, Brandt acknowledged "potential global distribution system involvement" in United GoBusiness bookings. Cendant was not available at press time to clarify the inner workings of the portal, including the potential use of its Galileo global distribution system or Orbitz Supplier Link technology. Supplier Link thus far has not been deployed by Orbitz to handle corporate travel bookings.

Meanwhile, Brandt said United would not be in violation of any content-for-discount agreements in place with global distribution system companies. "We can offer negotiated corporate private fares on united.com that do not go through a global distribution system, and this is the same thing," he explained. "It is a proprietary, targeted content arrangement that is not publicly available."

The site is scheduled for beta testing early next month with a handful of accounts, followed by a full launch set for late November or early December.